I can inhabit any character in a way that is difficult to do successfully in a contemporary novel.

Life should be embraced like a lover.

And she did not want him to think her quite mad, only a little unique, only containing within her just that measure of the unexpected sufficient to make her irreplaceable.

When you've finished a piece of work you've had a kind of love affair with it.

There is something about the unexpected that moves us. As if the whole of existence is paid for in some way, except for that one moment, which is free.

Respect the way characters may change once they've got 50 pages of life in them. Revisit your plan at this stage and see whether certain things have to be altered to take account of these changes.

Listen to the criticisms and preferences of your trusted "first readers".